Things got testy between Fox’s Bill O’Reilly and Democrat Kirsten Powers last night. They were discussing the border crisis.

O’Reilly threw out some facts about the crisis, namely that most of those illegal aliens who are currently flooding across the border are not from Mexico. They’re from Central America.

Powers responded by denouncing facts and weaponizing religion.

Powers started off talking about the aliens doing “jobs,” when the majority of them are children. What jobs does Powers think they will be doing? She questions their need for education. If they’re still here in September, and most of them will be, then local schools are required to take them in. Is Powers unaware of this? If she is, she doesn’t really belong on national TV commenting on it.

Powers then suggests that previous waves of immigrants would have gone on welfare if it had been available. Possibly true, but isn’t that a problem? Powers doesn’t seem to think that people coming to American not to contribute but to live on welfare is a problem. She thinks her own relatives would have done it.

She grew up in Alaska. Her own relatives are probably hardy folk who wouldn’t have gone on welfare. Welfare types don’t usually move to Alaska.

If welfare had been around during previous immigration waves, might it have stunted the assimilation of those future hard-working Americans who have become part of the fabric of this country? Thankfully we don’t know.

Powers admits that she wants an “open border” because “it would be good for this country,” before accusing O’Reilly of “misrepresenting” her views. How an open border in an age of transnational terrorism would be “good” for America, Powers doesn’t explain. It would be nice to hear the rationale behind that. We’ve all heard the libertarian case for open borders, which is chiefly economic. Let’s hear the leftwing case. One suspects that there is a public case, which will say something about jobs and businesses, and that there is a private case, which is all about votes for Democrats. That’s really the game for Democrats when it comes to the border. They want immigrants to displace conservative votes, especially in Texas. Creating more Democrat votes trumps everything else, including religion. Religion, for Powers, is a means to an end here.

Powers then plays the religion card, ranting that she thought it was a “Christian thing” to “care.” The implication there, of course, is that only liberals care. That’s false and Powers is grown up enough to know that.

It is a Christian thing to care, and the same Christians Obama’s allies are smearing over the contraceptive war are taking in some of the illegal aliens that Obama’s policies have inhumanely attracted here.. It’s also a Christian thing to respect the law, just as it’s a Christian thing to respect life. Democrats don’t do either of those things. Powers doesn’t seem to have a problem with that.

It’s a Christian thing not to lie and impugn the motives of others. Powers worked for the Clinton administration and, against O’Reilly, questioned his “sudden fascination with Central Americans.” That’s a slimy play of the race card, when the simple fact is that the vast majority of people who are currently crossing the border are from Central America. If it’s racist to bring that fact up, then there’s nothing to talk about, at least not with Kirsten Powers.

Democrats do this — smear people rather than stick to facts. Powers does this.

Powers has done this before, when she suggested that the New Black Panthers case was all about Republicans’ fear of “big black men.” Not the weapons they held in their hands, or the fact that they were standing around outside voting places. Just racial fear.

Next week, Powers will play the other side of her cynical game, and say things that outrage the left. It’s a lucrative game, that, if nothing else, keeps people guessing.